Fighter jets and bombers head for scrapheap

The Government is secretly planning a massive round of further defence cuts - even greater than those announced last week, an Evening Standard investigation has found.

Dozens of fighter planes and bombers could be cut from the RAF strike force in addition to the 50 Tornado and Jaguar jets axed last week.

The cuts will come through a scaling-down - or even the complete-cancellation - of future aircraft orders, leaving the RAF fast jet fleet less than two-thirds of its present size.

All three services will suffer cuts to helicopter fleets, delays to equipment programmes and further tri-service mergers. The threats to single-service training colleges at Dartmouth, Cranwell and Sandhurst have not been ruled out. Last week's cuts reduced the RAF to 178 fast jet aircraft - 52 air defence fighters, and 126 ground attack bombers. But in an almost unnoticed table published with the announcements, the MoD states that the armed forces will require only 84 fast jets - 20 fighters and 64 bombers.

In practice, generating 84 active fighters and bombers may require an operational fleet of about 130 jets to allow for maintenance, training and accidents - a further reduction, even allowing for the cuts last week, of at least 50 aircraft.

The figure has even more serious implications for the new jets being ordered by the RAF. Britain has ordered 232 Eurofighters - and is also planning to take up to 150 of the US-designed Joint Strike Fighter for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers.

"The numbers just don't add up," said Andrew Brookes, air analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. "There is no way that you will need 382 fast jets to generate 84 active aircraft. Something big is going to go."

Analysts say the options for the MoD are to reduce the Eurofighter order, abandon its commitment to the Joint Strike Fighter, or scrap its plans for a future offensive aircraft system.

Each of these options is fraught with problems. Britain is locked into a contract for 232 Eurofighters, which are built by a four-nation consortium. The UK could only reduce the number of aircraft through a complete renegotiation with the other countries involved.

Pulling out of the Joint Strike Fighter would risk

wasting the ?1.3 billion Britain has spent on the project. It would also leave the Royal Navy with nothing to put on its new aircraft carriers - unless the Eurofighter, currently unsuitable for operations at sea, can be converted to a carrier aircraft.

"It is a classic mess," said Mr Brookes. "They'll try and muddle through, but I don't see any way out of it."

Huge cuts are also expected in Britain's future helicopter programme. Helicopters play a vital role on the battlefield and in transporting troops, but a report by the National Audit Office said there were shortfalls of up to 87 per cent in helicopter capabilities during the Iraq war.

Last week, the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, announced that the Government would spend ?3 billion over the next 10 years on a new fleet of helicopters to replace the services' ageing Lynxes, Pumas and Sea Kings. But senior MoD sources have told the Standard the figure was originally ?4.18billion - almost 40 per cent higher - and a frantic search for cuts in the new helicopter programme is under way.

"We may well end up scrapping one pro --gramme altogether, with devastating results for British industry and for the forces," said one source involved.

Britain was due to buy the Future Lynx helicopter, made by the Westland plant in Yeovil, Somerset. Senior MoD officials now want to cancel this order altogether, which could put Westland out of business.

Evening Standard has also learned that the MoD is carrying out six further studies of possible areas for cuts, including logistics and tri-service defence training. Although the singleservice colleges at Dartmouth, Cranwell and Sandhurst survived last week's cuts unscathed, one source said their future could still not be guaranteed.

The MoD today said it was fully committed to the Eurofighter and Joint Strike Fighter.